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Political Friday: it's all a conspiracy

I read John Key's latest comments via the NZ Herald this morning and I remain gobsmacked at the arrogance of the man.

Before I go on, let's get one thing perfectly clear... I'm not a "left wing conspiracist". Politically speaking, I'm decidedly non-aligned, preferring to judge individual politicians on their actions and parties on their policies.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll continue...

Mr Key has repeatedly answered a huge raft of very pertinent questions posed to him by the media by simply ranting about a "left wing smear campaign" which, he now claims, is "stealing" the election.

According to JK, none of the very important questions relating to the actions of himself and those politically close to him matter -- it's all about the fact that a bunch of unfortunate truths are being used to tarnish reputations and he seems to think that this just isn't fair.

Well I'm sorry John, that's just politics and if you can't stand the heat..., as they say.

The most stunning aspect of JK's response to the revelations found in Hagar's book is the sheer hypocrisy of the man.

According to this NZH story, Key has said of of the media that through the act of reporting on the contents of the tome, "you're effectively supporting illegal activity".

WTF?

This from the man who, as head of state, endorsed the unlawful armed raids on Kim Dotcom, the unlawful spying on NZ citizens and residents, the unlawful armed detention of innocent Kiwis near the Urewera raids and the potentially unlawful lifting of materials from the labour website.

Why is it okay for JK's government to break the law but not okay for the media to report on the facts contained in Hagar's book?

What stuns me the most is that according to a poll released this morning, a full half of the country still hold the National party in sufficiently high regard to lend them a their vote in a few weeks time.

OMG... how stupid are half of us? Although I suspect there will be healthy debate as to which half are the stupidest :-)

The unfortunate thing is that no matter which party forms the next government, they will face some very significant problems.

Despite claims of a surplus (obtained by spending ACC money on "the trough" rather than providing treatment for those who have been injured as it should be and by delaying huge swathes of work in Christchurch to cover the fact that the EQC is broke), our underlying economy is not really in such good shape.

With the flow of cash for the Christchurch rebuild depleted, that huge sustaining factor in the economy will disappear, exposing the true state of our sorry situation for all to see and the effect of asset sales will vanish -- although the negative effects of deeply slashed dividend returns from those assets will linger forever. Add to this the decline in the value of our dairy exports and things don't look quite as bright as some would paint them.

Our "rock star" economy will be revealed as just a one-man band that has been high on cocaine for the past few years. Once the artificial high is gone, look out for some severe withdrawal.

What's more, once the TPPA is signed, any hope we might have had of negotiating reasonable prices for our exports will have taken a significant hit and the USA will be in control of significant swathes of our economy. I don't expect that they'll be exercising that control for *our* benefit.

I suspect JK will also blame that on a left wing conspiracy.

Batten the hatches, I fear the next 5-6 years could be tough -- but then again, I am not an economist so what would I know? :-)

What are *your* predictions for the next 5-6 years and what are the factors that will most affect our economy and society?

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